Fluorine partitioning between hydrous minerals and aqueous fluid at 1 GPa and 770–947 °C: A new constraint on slab flux

Abstract

Mechanisms of volatile element transfer from subducting slab to the melting region beneath arc volcanoes are probably the least understood process in arc magma genesis. Fluorine, which suffers minimal degassing in arc primitive melt inclusions, is highly enriched in arc lavas and retains information about the role of volatiles during magma genesis at depth. Experimentally determined solubility of F in aqueous fluids, and partition coefficients of F between fluid and minerals provide first order geochemical constraints about the character of the volatile-transporting agent. We present experimentally determined F solubility in fluid in equilibrium with hornblende and a humite group mineral at 1GPa, from 770 to 947°C, and partition coefficients between these phases. The composition of the fluid is determined by mass-balance calculations and consistency is verified by high pressure liquid chromatography measurements of the quenched fluids. The partition coefficient DFFlu/Hb can be represented by a single value of 0.13±0.03. The average F concentration in the fluid is 2700ppm for F-rich experiments, constraining the maximum amount of F carried by fluid in the presence of amphibole. Where the initial natural F concentrations in the slab are much lower than in our experiments, the increase of F concentration in the sub-arc mantle by a fluid in equilibrium with hornblende is expected to be no more than a few ppm. Thus significant arc lava F enrichments cannot result from aqueous fluids deriving from an amphibole-bearing subducting slab.